EDU738 Guidelines for Collecting Data: Using SurveyMonkey and Inviting Participants

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Alberta Coral Paul
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1 EDU738 Guidelines for Collecting Data: Using SurveyMonkey and Inviting Participants FINALIZING YOUR SURVEY FOR DATA COLLECTION To collect survey data for your project, I want you to use a SurveyMonkey account that has been set up specifically for EDU738. While SurveyMonkey does have a free version, and you may have used it for your IRB application, it is limited in two very important ways. First the free version only allows 10 items and in general, that is too few items for a research survey. Second, the free version does not give you the option to download all of the individual responses. Instead the free version only provides a pdf summary report. The summary report can be informative but it limits your ability to look at your data in more detail. Finally, if you use the EDU SurveyMonkey account, I can help you if you run into troubles with your survey. If you have already made a free SurveyMonkey account and put your survey there, you can easily copy it from there to the EDU738 account. In the My Surveys view click on Transfer and give the user name for the EDU738 account that is: User name: [CONTACT YOUR INSTRUCTOR THIS INFORMATION] (Play close attention to capitalization and the underscores. I recommend just copying and pasting this user name and the password below.) Password: [CONTACT YOUR INSTRUCTOR FOR THIS INFORMATION] THREE IMPORTANT POINTS: (1) Everyone will be using the same account. Therefore please be careful when you are on the SurveyMonkey website. DO NOT look at or FIDDLE WITH anyone else s survey. There is no backup capacity on SurveyMonkey. If you delete a survey or delete data, it is GONE! L So, please, be thoughtful and careful when you are working on the SurveyMonkey site. (2) When you name your survey, please be sure to include each group member s first name as part of the title. Sometimes survey titles can be similar so by adding your names, it will be less likely that you will open someone else s survey by mistake. If you have already named your survey, you can rename it. (3) Since your surveys are meant to be anonymous, you will need to be sure that you do NOT collect the respondent s IP address. The IP address indicates the location of the computer that was used to complete the survey! In many cases, knowing the IP address would allow you to figure out who completed the survey. In SurveyMonkey, the default is to record and save the IP address. To ignore the IP address you have to go to the Collect Responses -à Edit Settings page, scroll down to the bottom where is says Save the IP Address? and click No. Please see the screenshot below: EDU738_Guidelines_for_Collecting_Data 4-13_web_version.docx Page 1 of 5

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3 CONTACTING POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS FOR YOUR RESEARCH STUDY Once you have received approval for your research study from the IRB, you can begin to contact potential participants. Remember that your potential sample was identified in your IRB application. Thus if you said that your participants would be fellow students in EDU738, YOU ARE ONLY AUTHORIZED to invite members of our EDU738 class to participate in the study. First you should be sure that your data collection instruments are ready. If you are collecting survey data, see the earlier section of this note about setting up your survey on the EDU738 SurveyMonkey account. Remember that you need to have students reply to your informed consent form. You have two options; you can both include the informed consent form in your and have your invitees return it to you. (They can sign it by typing in their name.) Or, for those who you will be surveying, you can embed the informed consent form in your SurveyMonkey instrument as the very first item which you set up as a required yes/no item. If student checks off the yes item, they will have agreed to participate and you can use those responses. If the student checks off no, you can t use the responses. Since it is a required item, participants can t continue until they have indicated their willingness to participate or not. If the person checks no then there should be a branch to exit the survey. Even if you use the embedded format, you should include a copy of the informed consent form in your invitation. I have included two versions a sample invitation at the end of this file. Thus, the principal investigator for your group should sign the informed consent letter and then send it as an MS Word attachment to the invitation. Please be sure to include me in your so I can see what you have written. On the EDU738 website, I have s short tutorial that shows how to sign a form using MS Word. Here is the link to that tutorial: ol_tutorials.html (Please note that it is very difficult to sign a form using Apple s Pages program. If you are using pages, you will need to print the form, sign it and then scan it. Then send the scanned version back to me.) Here are two templates that you can use for your depending on whether you are using the embedded SurveyMonkey format for the Informed Consent or the traditional paper version. Please note if you are asking students to return the Informed Consent letter, then the should NOT include a link to your survey. Once you classmate returns a signed informed consent form, then you can send the link to the survey. I will be sending you, your classmates Gmail addresses. Remember that for most studies no one other than the researcher(s) should actually know who is participating or who was invited to participate. Thus when you send out the , put everyone s address in the bcc area and put yours in the to area. That way your classmates won t know who else was invited. And perhaps even more important, it doesn t lead to the spread of EDU738_Guidelines_for_Collecting_Data 4-13_web_version.docx Page 3 of 5

4 personal addresses that could end up being used by someone else for spam or something even more malicious. Your Participation When you receive an invitation from your classmate, remember that it is OK to decline to be interviewed or respond to a survey, and indeed I won t know who actually participates. On the other hand, I do hope that you will accept all invitations to participate. Not only would your participation help your fellow classmates, but also looking at the way your peers pose conduct their study, especially the survey and interview questions, may help think about shortcomings to your own research study. If you have any questions about this, please contact me. Sample invitation Dear Student, Sample #1 Invitation for Survey We, [researchers names], are conducting a research study for EDU738 on [TITLE OR BRIEF DESCRIPTION]. We would like to invite to participate in our study. The survey will take only a few minutes and we thank you in advance for your participation. Your input and comments are valuable to our study. Please complete the survey by [DATE]. Attached is a copy of the Informed Consent letter that describes the project in more detail. Please review the letter carefully. Then whether you choose to participate or not choose, please sign in the appropriate location and return this form to the Principal Investigator of the study. Once you have returned the form, we will send you the link to the survey. Here is a link that shows how to sign a form using Microsoft Word. ool_tutorials.html If you have additional comments or questions, please contact [PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR] by at [GMAIL ADDRESS] or by cell phone at [(???)???-????]. Regards, [ALL GROUP MEMBERS NAMES] ß (TYPICALLY THIS WOULD JUST BE ONE PERSON S NAME) EDU738_Guidelines_for_Collecting_Data 4-13_web_version.docx Page 4 of 5

5 Dear Student, Sample #2 Invitation for Survey We, [researchers names], are conducting a research study for EDU738 on [TITLE OR BRIEF DESCRIPTION]. We would like to invite to participate in our study. The survey will take only [INDICATE TIME DURATION] and we thank you in advance for your willingness to participate. Your input and comments will be valuable to our study. Please complete the survey by [DATE]. Attached is a copy of the Informed Consent Form that describes the project in more detail. Please review the letter carefully. This is the link to the survey: [LINK TO SURVEY] At the beginning of the survey there is a copy of the informed consent form. If you are willing to participate check the yes box at the end of the letter. If you do not want to participate, you can check the no box. If you choose no, you will simply exit the survey. If you have additional comments or questions, please contact PERSON??? (Principal Investigator) by at [GMAIL ADDRESS] or by cell phone at [(???)???-????]. Regards, [ALL GROUP MEMBERS NAMES] ß (TYPICALLY THIS WOULD JUST BE ONE PERSON S NAME) EDU738_Guidelines_for_Collecting_Data 4-13_web_version.docx Page 5 of 5

GUIDE FOR RESEARCHERS USING THE RESEARCH PARTICIPATION SYSTEM. An Overview of how to set up studies in the Research Participation System

GUIDE FOR RESEARCHERS USING THE RESEARCH PARTICIPATION SYSTEM Since students can now sign-up and keep track of extra credit using our Research Participation System at utexascomm.sona-systems.com (Or via